A system having a plurality of devices between which data is transferred can have certain disadvantages associated therewith, and in particular for remotely located data storage devices. For example, an personal advertisement system can have many devices that must exchange data. Such a system can have call centers for obtaining information from individuals wishing to place a personal advertisement. An information system can maintain and control user information, billing information, and profile data, for example. An audiotext ad-taker system can obtain personal advertiser information via phone. The system can include a plurality of machines, or audiotext systems, for storing personal advertisement information, such as voice greetings and ad responses. The devices in this system can be locally networked to enable data communication between the described systems and devices.
However, in the case where there is a plurality of remotely located audiotext systems, distributed across the country for example, the costs associated with direct and continuous data communication with the audiotext systems is significant. The audiotext systems can be placed in manual modem communication to obtain information as desired. This arrangement requires considerable human, and therefore slow, costly and inaccurate interaction with the device requesting the information and the audiotext system.
Data can be obtained from the remote devices via modem under the control of the information system and ad-taker system. However, the information and ad-taker system may attempt to access the same remote device at the same time, thus wasting time and possibly degrading data transfer integrity. In addition, information obtained from the remote systems can be stored on a network location, such as server, that is accessible to the data requestor. Thus, the data requestor can access the data at a convenient time. However, where there are multiple data requestors, such as the information system and an adtaker system, there may be contention for the network data storage location for simultaneous data transfer requests. This can result in undesirable and costly data loss and corruption.